


Familiar

by humanveil



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Funerals, Gen, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:53:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8554600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanveil/pseuds/humanveil
Summary: He does not cry.





	

He does not cry.

He doesn't do anything, really. His face is the perfect example of stoicism throughout.

Even when people ask, he denies the accusations; says he's perfectly fine. He knows they know better, but the lies help. Somehow.

When he sees the body, he stays still; swallows down the emotions threatening to break him. When he hears the speeches, words of heroism and other bullshit he _knows_ Severus would have hated, he stays quiet. There's no use arguing; no use trying to show them what he was really like, without the disguise of both light and dark personas.

Besides, he’s happier to be left with his own image of the man, one not tainted by everyone else. What they had seems more special, that way.

Afterwards, when everyone else is mingling, he leaves. He doesn't say goodbye, doesn't want to risk being pulled into a conversation. He has nothing to say; nothing any of them would want to hear, anyway.

He doesn't go home, not that the halls of the manor feel anything like a home. Rather, he goes to Spinners End – makes his way through the rain and mud until he's inside a familiar room, eyes watching as dust moves, catching in what little light is left. The familiarity, the presence that still lingers in the house, is as comforting now as it had been back then, when he'd huddled against the other man after his failure.

When he sleeps, it's in Severus’ bed. He pulls a robe from the dresser to wrap himself in, buries his face in the pillow that still holds a familiar scent. What he had felt at the funeral comes back now, only stronger. It sweeps through his body, his bones. It threatens to rip him apart from his very core.

But still, he does not cry.


End file.
